In tough times, ranks of homeless students rising

By EVELYN NIEVES

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As foreclosures and layoffs force families out of their homes, school districts across the nation are struggling to deal with a dramatic influx of homeless children.

Some districts are seeing increases of 50 to 100 percent or more and are so understaffed that it is taking weeks to help the homeless students and families who need it, according to a new survey on homeless children. Educators say students without a stable home are at greater risk of becoming truants, developing behavioral problems and failing in school.

An estimated 2 million children are at risk of homelessness because of the foreclosure crisis and economic downturn, according to First Focus, a child advocacy organization that examined Census and economic data.

The number of homeless students in foreclosure-ridden Oakland, with 38,000 students, has doubled to 1,200 since last year, said Mathew Uretsky, the district's homeless coordinator. And he thinks the number of school-age homeless children is four times as high.

"We find children in shelters who are just sitting there," he said. "Sometimes we find kids who aren't in school right now because they don't have bus passes. A lot of children of day laborers are not going to school because their parents don't think they have a right to go."

Some families end up in shelters, or bunking with relatives or friends. Others stay in run-down motels, or their cars. In cities where rents are high, such as San Francisco, a family that loses its home may spend months, even years, trying to find another.

Alex Rodriguez, 32, and Rosa Estevez, 26, both lost their jobs — he at a car parts store, she an insurance office — when their companies left San Francisco. Within two months, they and their 12-year-old son were homeless. They wound up at Rafael House, a family shelter.

Estevez, who is pregnant, said their son is often depressed.

"We try to stay upbeat for him," she said, "but I've noticed that he is not as interested in school any more."

A survey of more than 1,700 school districts released Friday by First Focus and The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), Washington-based non-profits, found unprecedented jumps in homeless students in the three months of the school year.

Most districts surveyed said they had identified more homeless students in the first three months than they had at the same point last year. Some 330 districts already have identified at least as many homeless students this school year as they did in the entire previous year. About 10 percent of the 16,000 school districts across the country participated in the survey.

But school district homeless liaisons, whose jobs are to identify and help homeless students, believe the numbers are even higher than reported, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of NAEHCY. Schools are finding it harder to identify homeless students because families new to homelessness often are moving targets. Many are not sure how to seek help or are too humiliated to come forward.

"Before this economic downturn, there was not enough shelter," Duffield said. "That is, the safety net was badly frayed. Now, it's got a gaping hole through which families who have never experienced this are falling."

Although the U.S. Department of Education still is tallying the number of homeless students for the 2007-2008 school year, all indications point to a problem with no end in sight, said John McLaughlin, coordinator of the DOE's homeless assistance program for school districts. "All across the board," he said, "in every state we got information from, there were some pretty big increases in homeless students."

The primary reasons for the surge are increasing joblessness and the foreclosure debacle, according to local and national homeless advocacy organizations.

"You've got dramatic foreclosures plus a million job losses," said Philip Mangano, director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the administration's lead organization for addressing homeless issues. "We would have to be naive to believe that this wouldn't have an effect on families already struggling, and it has."

In this economy, there is no quick fix. Congress approved $3.9 billion in its last spending bill to aid communities ravaged by the foreclosure crisis, Mangano said. Advocates for homeless children are asking the Senate for $72 million in emergency funding for DOE's homeless children and youth programs.

The influx of homeless students also is costing local school districts. Federal law requires state and local school agencies to provide homeless students transportation to the school they began the year attending, as well as meals, books and other support. Some districts report that transportation bills eat up more than half of their funds for homeless assistance.

Cities and counties hard hit by foreclosures are seeing a corresponding rise in family homelessness. In Nevada's Clark County, with one of the worst foreclosure rates in the nation, the school district of 300,000 students reports 4,033 homeless students, double the number a year ago.

"We're falling in the same pattern as everybody else," said Myra Berkovitz, the district's coordinator for homeless students. "More need and less money."

Human Right to Housing

No housing program can be adequate or complete if it fails to provide for any substantial segment of our population. We can maintain neither a prosperous industry nor a prosperous nation if we do not bring better housing to more people.
- Pres. Harry S. Truman

There Is No Place Like Home:
Revisiting Our Commitment to Housing the Poor
Full Report

Mortgage Crisis Hits 2 Million U.S. Children

Children's advocates say the impacts of the housing and foreclosure crisis are being felt in K-12 classrooms and communities across the country.(READ FULL ARTICLE)
(More)

Beyond the New Deal

Published on Friday, March 21, 2008 by The Nation
by Howard Zinn
“Our nation is in crisis, just as it was when Roosevelt took office. At that time, people desperately needed help, they needed jobs, decent housing, protection in old age."
Beyond the New Deal

Poison of the poor young mind

The U.S. governments irresponsible, disreguard of poverty stricken children only keeps them in stuck in the same position of their parents. (Full Article)

The de-construction of public housing in S.F.

The plan from their view is to replace old units (they don't say how many!) with 2200 Hope IV type units. (Full Article)

Daly's proposal for 50% more affordable housing in Bayview (Full Article)

$22.5 Million not enough!

After federal grants for Continuum of Care, Mid-West state says not enough to curb homelessness. (Full Article)

Conn. State Sen. Wants More Affordable Housing

Conn. State Minority Leader John McKinney, son of Stewart B. McKinney, has a proposal in the Senate that will increase the affordable housing stock in the State. (Full Article)

Related Article- Westport News

Lying liars and the lies they tell

A fact check on HUD’s “News Release” Wednesday 11/7/07

Today Alfonso Jackson, Secretary of HUD, borrowed a few pages from Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Phil Mangano as he released a HUD report claiming an 11.5% decrease in the numbers of chronically homeless people from 175,914 in 2005 to 155,623 in 2006. He claimed 20,000 people moved into transitional and permanent housing between 2005 and 2006. This is directly attributed to HUD and local continuums of care creating more supportive housing units and, “breaking the vicious cycle of homelessness for those who have lived on the streets as a way of life,” as well as better data collection. He further claims HUD awarded “$286 million to 1,100 programs that house and serve individuals experiencing chronic homelessness… creating 4,000 new units of permanent supportive housing.” (You might be tempted to ask how 20,000 people fit into 4,000 units but wait we’ll get to that.) He also claimed that since 2001 the Bushies, “have awarded $9 billion to support thousands of local housing and service programs throughout the nation and is seeking a record $1.6 billion… for FY 2008.” He says this is a 41% increase compared to 2001. He then refers to the, “comprehensive shelter and street point in time snapshots,” as a, “powerful tool to gauge the progress in meeting the homeless challenge and creating innovative housing solutions in response.” He then repeated the mantra of, “754,000 persons homeless on any given night.” Note that the last two sentences are the only ones that say “homeless” with the chronic label in front of it.

So, now a little fact checking:
HUD’s mission statement says they are, “the nation’s housing agency”..”… creating affordable housing opportunities for low-income Americans.” So let’s start there.
We’ll use the 2001 timeline that is referenced in the press release since that is when Bush took office:

1. Since 2001 HUD has spent $0 dollars on the development of new public housing units while 100,000 units of public housing were lost to demolition, sale or other removal between 1996 and 2006.
2. While many readers will think that this report means that homelessness has decreased by 12%, in reality HUD is only talking about people considered “chronically” homeless—a subpopulation the Department estimates to comprise 10% of the entire homeless population—meaning that we’re really talking about a 1.2-2.7% change.
3. While HUD maintains that 754,000 people total are homeless on any given day the Department of Education documents that 904,000 children alone attend public school everyday that do not have housing. While HUD’s number is based on a point-in-time count, wherein volunteers scramble to count all the people they see and think might be homeless, the DOE’s number comes from actual documentation of names and Social Security numbers. When HUD’s numbers are so far off, an apparent decrease of 1-3% means more or less jack.
4. 22 of the continua of care that applied for funding from HUD this year got no assistance whatsoever, meaning that all new chronic homelessness programs came at the expense of these communities.
5. No amount of data shuffling and reprioritizing of the homeless populations will ever change the fact that we need to restore the $52 billion a year we were spending on affordable housing before HUD become so damn proud of how great it was doing in ending chronic homelessness. We didn’t have any such thing as chronic homelessness…we had housing.

Paradise And Poverty

Most people look at Hawai'i and think, what a wonderful place to visit.
On the other hand, there are those who live there who see the other side of paradise. With poverty and homelessness being the "eyesore" most mainland cities cite as problems, the islands are violating McKinney-Vento laws. (FullArticle)


Related Articles:
Hawaii plans $20M homeless shelter

Homeless Youth Documentary Wins Award

N.U.I. Professor and Hear Us INC. president National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (N.A.E.H.C.Y.) annual award for Outstanding Media Presentation.

Full Article

Legislative Update: HUD Definition of Homelessness

BACKGROUND:

The "Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH)," H.R. 840, reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento Act’s HUD Homeless Assistance Programs. H.R. 840 provides greater decision making at the local level and more closely aligns the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agency definitions (including the U.S. Department of Education).

In contrast, the Senate bill, S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA), contains a complex, restrictive definition of homelessness that requires those who are doubled-up or in motels to make multiple moves in order to gain eligibility and codifies permanent housing set-asides that deny communities the ability to meet the needs of all homeless populations that they identify.


UPDATE:

Two new documents are now available regarding the HUD McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act reauthorization. Please find attached:

1. A "Fact Check" on the HUD definition of homelessness. This document sets the record straight on the effort to update HUD definition of homelessness.

2. An organizational sign-on letter of more than 40 child and youth organizations supporting an updated HUD definition of homelessness.

NPACH Alert: Support the HEARTH Act - House Hearings Held, New Materials Available

Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Services Committee held its second hearing on reauthorization of the HUD McKinney-Vento Act Homeless Assistance Grant Programs.

Four new documents are now available regarding the HUD McKinney-Vento Act reauthorization:

1. NPACH testimony from the October 4 McKinney-Vento reauthorization hearing.

2. A "Fact Check" on the HUD definition of homelessness. This document sets the record straight on the effort to update HUD's definition of homelessness.

3. A "Fact Check" on HUD funding and the "chronic homelessness initiative" that clarifies key points in the debate.

4. An organizational sign-on letter from 44 child and youth organizations supporting an updated HUD definition of homelessness.

These materials, along with a brief comment on the hearing, are available at the NPACH website, at: www.npach.org

ACTION NEEDED:

Please ask the House to take action on the HEARTH Act, H.R. 840. To find out if your Member of Congress has signed on to H.R. 840, visit: H.R.840


If your Representative is a co-sponsor, please call their office to thank them, and ask that they urge House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Housing Subcommittee Chairwoman Maxine Waters to pass the HEARTH Act and bring it to the House floor.

If your Representative is not a co-sponsor, please ask them to become one - the more co-sponsors we have, the more likely it is that HEARTH will move forward. Contact information for all House Members is available at http://www.house.gov If your Representative is interested in co-sponsoring HEARTH, they should notify Kathleen Taylor in the office of Representative Julia Carson or Lauren O’Brien in the office of Representative Geoff Davis.

For more information, visit http://www.naehcy.org/update.html

So. Ill. tries to eleviate "homeless student" sterotype

While the federal law describes them as children "who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence," the Illinois State Board of Education further defines them as children sharing housing with others because of a lack of housing, economic hardship or other reasons.
Full Story: Program to help schools educate homeless students

Suit alleges Hawaii fails homeless kids

The state has failed so badly at helping homeless children get to and from public schools that federal courts should intervene in the situation, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and two other parties.

Full story:
Hawaii fails homeless kids

Suit: State denies homeless kids equal access to public education
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against state officials, claiming they are failing to provide homeless children with equal access to public education.

Don’t let red tape deny homeless children their education
The prospect of federal intervention should prompt the state and the Department of Education to resolve quickly.

Support the HEARTH Act

Support the HEARTH Act: Congressional Hearings Oct. 4 and Oct. 11

Background:

The "Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH)," H.R. 840, reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento Act’s HUD Homeless Assistance Programs. H.R. 840 provides greater decision making at the local level, more closely aligns the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agency definitions (including the U.S. Department of Education), expands resources for emergency shelter and supportive services, provides a framework for greater homeless prevention activity, allows communities the flexibly to implement a range of housing solutions, and makes HUD policy more sensitive to the needs of children, youth, and families.

In contrast, the Senate bill, S. 1518, the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA), is flawed. It contains a complex, restrictive definition of homelessness which requires those who are doubled-up or in motels to make multiple moves in order to gain eligibility; it codifies permanent housing set-asides that deny communities the ability to meet the needs of all homeless populations that they identify; and it excludes community planning provisions that would ensure participation by homeless education liaisons and also help ensure that homeless children and youth are able to exercise their educational rights.

Legislative Update:

The House Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, will hold two hearings on reauthorization of HUD's McKinney-Vento homeless assistance grant programs. The hearings will take place on Thursday, October 4 at 10am, and Thursday, October 11 at 2pm.

Ms. Pittre Walker, NAEHCY Board Member and Homeless Liaison for Caddo Parish Schools in Shreveport, Louisiana, will testify at the October 4 hearing. Her testimony will be available from the NAEHCY web site prior to the hearing. Diane Nilan, President of HEAR US, will testify at the October 11th hearing. Other partners, including the National Policy & Advocacy Council on Homelessness, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and the National Network for Youth, also will provide testimony. Both hearings can be viewed via webcast, by going to: http://financialservices.house.gov/hearings_all.shtml

Recommended Action:

Please ask the House to take action on the HEARTH Act, H.R. 840. A list of the current 78 co-sponsors can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00840:@@@P

If your Representative is a co-sponsor, please call their office to thank them, and ask that they urge House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Housing Subcommittee Chairwoman Maxine Waters to pass the HEARTH Act and bring it to the House floor.

If your Representative is not a co-sponsor, please ask them to become one - the more co-sponsors we have, the more likely it is that HEARTH will move forward. Contact information for all House Members is available at http://www.house.gov/ If your Representative is interested in co-sponsoring HEARTH, they should notify Kathleen Taylor in the office of Representative Julia Carson.

H.R. 840 – The HEARTH Act of 2007

BACKGROUND:

On Tuesday, February 6, the “Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act (HEARTH Act), H.R. 840, was introduced by U.S. Representatives Julia Carson (D-7th/IN), Geoff Davis (R-4th/KY), Rick Renzi (R-1st/AZ) and Barbara Lee (D-9th/CA). The HEARTH Act reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Programs that are administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HEARTH now has 75 co-sponsors.

The HEARTH Act provides greater decision making at the local level, more closely aligns the HUD definition of homelessness with other federal agency definitions (including the U.S. Department of Education), expands resources for supportive services, provides a framework for greater homelessness prevention activities, and allows communities the flexibility to implement a range of housing solutions. A summary of key provisions is included below.

KEY HEARTH ACT PROVISIONS:

• Consolidates all HUD McKinney-Vento housing programs (except Emergency Shelter Grants) into one competitive program with a broad set of eligible activities, including homelessness prevention, permanent or transitional housing for any homeless population, and supportive services.

• Allows communities to prioritize particular housing and services initiatives based on demonstrated local need, not because of national priorities set by HUD that often do not match local needs.

• Aligns the HUD definition of who is homeless more closely with the definition used by the U.S. Department of Education by including people who are living in doubled-up situations or in hotels / motels. This change will make many more children, youth, and families eligible for HUD homeless assistance, providing communities with the flexibility to serve the people who are homeless within their borders.

• Protects victims of domestic violence by prohibiting the disclosure of any information collected by a housing or social service provider that could identify them, and prevents homelessness by permitting victims of domestic violence who may be in danger to immediately move to a safer living situation.

• Ensures that communities wishing to prioritize housing and services for homeless persons living on the streets for a long period of time are free to target dollars to that population, without codifying a definition of “chronic homelessness” or a set of incentives designed to end “chronic homelessness.”

• Requires a 25% match for all housing and supportive services, but permits the match to be met either in cash or with an in-kind contribution.

Refining McKinney

Room for Improvement in Senate Markup

Mobilizer readers know that 2007 marks both the twentieth anniversary of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, the first major federal legislation directed towards ameliorating homelessness, and the time to reauthorize HUD-administered McKinney Homeless Assistance programs. Regrettably, despite the availability of McKinney resources, more people now experience homelessness than when the act first was authorized in 1987. Although McKinney alone will never end homelessness (only dramatic changes in the nation’s housing and health care policies will accomplish this goal), the legislation is important and must be strengthened. Last Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs unanimously passed S.1518 – the Community Partnership to End Homelessness Act (CPEHA) – which would reauthorize and amend McKinney Homeless Assistance programs. Several results of the Committee’s mark-up session require action from advocates.

Defining McKinney

The Senate markup would expand HUD’s definition of homelessness to include certain individuals and families living in hotels or motels along with those “doubled up” due to economic hardship. Though this expanded definition is welcome, there is still room for improvement. The new definition would only permit doubled up families to be considered “homeless” (and thus eligible for McKinney resources) if they have moved three times in the past year or twice in the past 21 days. The specificity of this language no doubt will prove difficult for communities to measure and enforce and could prevent many eligible individuals and families from accessing HUD’s homeless assistance programs. A less restrictive definition would reflect more accurately the realities of homelessness and very precarious housing.

Realigning McKinney

More than five years ago, the Administration announced the laudable goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2012 – without appropriating resources sufficient to support this noble effort. In FY2007, Congress appropriated $1.442 billion for McKinney programs – an increase over the previous year, but hardly the investment necessary to end homelessness. The current markup of S.1518 would increase the authorization level to $2.2 billion. In addition to this increase, the bill rightly requires thgat funding for permanent housing subsidies created through the McKinney Act be renewed through the Section 8 account rather than through McKinney – thus reserving a greater portion of McKinney dollars for new supportive housing and new and on-going services. Although a step in the right direction, the proposed increases are not sufficient to fund existing projects working to end and prevent homelessness let alone important new projects necessary to get people off the streets and back into the mainstream. The National Council calls upon Congress to appropriate at least $3 billion for McKinney Homeless Assistance programs.

House Reauthorization

In contrast, the House of Representatives is considering a different piece of legislation to rewrite the laws of McKinney—one that the Council and other national homeless advocacy organizations have endorsed because it is more comprehensive and better equipped to address the complicated task of ending and preventing homelessness. Introduced by Congresswoman Julia Carson (D-IN), H.R. 840, the Homeless Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act contains an expanded definition of homelessness that includes individuals and families living in hotels or motels and “doubled up” situations without the restrictive language that defines how often a person must move to be considered homeless, such as the language that exists in the Senate bill (CPEHA- S.1518). In addition, HEARTH reauthorizes McKinney Homeless Assistance programs at $2.5 billion and provides communities with flexibility in using their McKinney funds to address their community’s needs, rather than allowing HUD to dictate how the money must be used, provisions that are not include in the Senate bill. The House Committee on Financial Services subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity has schedule two hearings, beginning next week, to discuss McKinney reauthorization.

ACTION:

• Read the National Council’s policy statement on Housing (HERE)

• Call your Senators TODAY to enlist their support to strengthen McKinney and to back other measures necessary to end homelessness. Urge them to pass language more accurately reflecting the number of homeless Americans by including everyone lacking a place of their own due to financial hardship. Ask your Senators to support increasing McKinney authorization to $3 billion. Find your Senator at www.senate.gov or call the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-2131.

• McKinney alone will never end homelessness. As you encourage your Congressional representatives to pass as strong a homelessness assistance package as possible, be sure to communicate the need for broader national policies promoting access to affordable housing, comprehensive health care, and livable incomes for all. Only through these measures will we prevent and end homelessness for good.

• For more information contact the National Council’s Health Policy Organizer, Adrienne Breidenstine at abreidenstine@hchmd.org or 443-703-1337

President Bush Discusses No Child Left Behind Reauthorization

The federal government invests money and education, and we ought to expect results in return for that investment. It's a pretty simple principle. If you're a taxpayer and you're spending your money, you want to make sure that money gets good results. And the best way to determine whether you get good results is to measure.

Full Article:
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning.

Subject: Senate Banking Committee Passes McKinney-Vento Legislation

NPACH Statement: Senate Banking Committee Approves McKinney-Vento Legislation

Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee approved S. 1518, legislation to reform HUD's McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs. If enacted, the bill would make important improvements to current federal policy on homelessness. Many of these positive changes are part of the legislation thanks to the hard work of advocates and service providers from around the country who provided comments and recommendations to Senators and their staff members. Without grass roots efforts, we would not have seen these gains.

Unfortunately, S. 1518 continues to inadequately address our concerns in three fundamental areas.

• Definition of homelessness - the bill's language requiring multiple doubled up or motel episodes in order to be considered homeless would be difficult for local communities to implement, and as a matter of policy would unwisely prevent many children, youth, and families without homes from accessing HUD homeless assistance.
• Set-asides and priorities - the bill is overly prescriptive in continuing to dictate to communities how funds should be spent, rather than allowing local advocates, service, providers, and government agencies to make these decisions.
• Community participation - an amendment to the bill deleted language to ensure that traditionally underrepresented stakeholders -- such as education liaisons, domestic violence program staff, and youth service providers -- are present "at the table" when homeless assistance grant applications are prepared. In addition, language specifically requiring the needs of homeless veterans to be considered in developing these local applications was removed from the bill.

Before the Senate passes S. 1518, improvements should be made in these key areas.

Next week, we will circulate a detailed analysis of S. 1518 as amended. Timing for the bill's consideration on the Senate floor remains uncertain. We believe that opportunities to make changes will be available, and will continue to inform you of those opportunities as they arise.

We, and many of our partners, believe that the HEARTH Act - H.R. 840 - provides a significantly better framework for McKinney-Vento reauthorization. We look forward to working with all of you, and with key House Members, to ensure that HEARTH's important provisions become law.

More HUD articles below:

HUD ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $18 MILLION TO HELP DEVELOP HOUSING FOR VERY LOW-INCOME ELDERLY

Twenty Years of McKinney

Twenty Years of McKinney

Last month marked 20 years since the 1987 Stewart B. McKinney Act, the federal government’s first and still most dominant program to alleviate homelessness for poor people in America. Why then do we still see so many homeless people on our streets? Or know about the “invisible homeless,” the individuals and families who have lost their homes and had to move in with others, sleep in cars or bounce from motel to shelter to hotel.

The short answer is because there is not enough housing. Since 1979, the federal government has reduced subsidized affordable housing by $52 billion. Between 1996 and 2005, 100,000 public housing units have been lost and there has been zero funding for new public housing since 1996. When people can no longer afford the cost of housing, they must live without housing, they become “the homeless.”

But there is a longer answer. The Stewart McKinney act had its hands tied from the very beginning. It was never given the power to stem the growing tide of poor people newly created by cutbacks in federal agencies responsible for addressing poverty.

Here is how it worked. The last 20 years have seen massive cutbacks in the rolls for Social Security Insurance, widespread job losses through the North American Free Trade Agreement, a stagnant minimum wage still below poverty level, and other cuts to poverty programs. As financial support disappeared for more and more people, poverty spread, and at the same time HUD’s affordable housing programs were decimated. The McKinney legislation was never designed to deal with these underlying causes of homelessness. Or put another way, it was never designed to overcome these barriers to ending homelessness.

When McKinney was signed into law in 1987, emerging homelessness was just beginning to be recognized as a national issue. Local communities had already established emergency shelters and services, and many had set up task forces or councils to coordinate services and write plans.

It was in this environment that the McKinney Act was born. It first focused on the immediate emergency needs of homeless people in local communities – beds, blankets, and band aids. It did not regulate how long people had to be homeless to qualify. It did not require communities to discriminate between families and individuals. It did not pretend to be a housing program.


Over the years, however, and given the mushrooming numbers of poor people, McKinney applications have forced a variety of homeless sub-populations to compete for woefully inadequate funds. For example, now HUD’s system for scoring community’s applications for McKinney funds are weighted in favor of housing “chronically homeless” individuals versus homeless families with children. In fact, HUD scores a community’s plan to create and success in creating permanent housing beds for people who are chronically homeless, but does not even require communities to include in its applications its strategies for creating permanent housing units for families with children and individuals who are not chronically homeless. Communities which are new to the McKinney funding world received no funding this year in part because they prioritized assisting families with children.

It has become a zero-sum game, with children, families, and single individuals competing against each other. As housing and services are made more available to one group, resources are drained from others. It is a classic example of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It shifts homelessness but has no chance whatsoever of ending it, and it puts cruel burdens on local communities.

July will mark 20 years since passage of the McKinney Act. It has done some good for some people. But has it has not significantly reduced homelessness across the country. How could it? A $1.4 billion a year homelessness budget cannot compensate for a $52 billion a year reduction in affordable housing.

Its original name, the “Urgent Relief for the Homeless Act,” makes clear that it was never intended to be a comprehensive solution for homeless people. HUD has that responsibility, but cuts to HUD’s budget for affordable low-income housing have been relentless. Tinkering with McKinney to determine who wins and who loses accomplishes nothing toward ending homelessness. Nor, for that matter, will punitive new laws against panhandling or sleeping in public, or poverty courts that serve only to remove the more visible homeless people from public view.

Urgent relief is needed. What’s to be done? As a private citizen, what can you do?

1. You can insist that any candidate seeking your support explain how he or she would return McKinney to its “urgent relief” function for all homeless people, as originally intended.

2. You can insist that any candidate seeking your support explain how he or she would ensure that the federal departments of HUD, Health, Education, and Labor will revitalize programs that once served poor people. We need to get this country back to the days before so many people needed “urgent relief.”

3. You can write, e-mail, or call both your favored candidate and the Democratic National Committee and demand that a comprehensive plan to end mass homelessness in America be a mason plank in the Democratic Party Platform for 2008.

We need a true comprehensive federal government plan to take effect immediately. Think New Deal.